BAAL-PERAZIM

(Baʹal-pe·raʹzim) [lord or master of breakings through].

The site of a complete victory by King David over the combined forces of the Philistines, sometime after David’s conquest of the stronghold of Jerusalem. (2 Sam. 5:9, 17-21) The record states that, upon hearing of the Philistines’ aggressive approach, David and his men “went down to the place hard to approach,” while the Philistines were “tramping about in the low plain of Rephaim.” Receiving assurance from Jehovah of his support, David attacked, and the Philistines fled, leaving their idols behind. Attributing the victory to Jehovah, David said. “Jehovah has broken through my enemies ahead of me, like a gap made by waters”; and for this reason he “called the name of that place Baal-perazim.” The account at 2 Samuel 5:21 says that David and his men ‘took the Philistines’ abandoned idols away’; however, the parallel account at 1 Chronicles 14:12 shows the final action taken, stating: “Then David said the word, and so they [the idols] were burned in the fire.”

The low plain of Rephaim is considered to be the plain of the Baqaʽ to the SW of Jerusalem, which, after sloping downward for about a mile (c. 1.6 kilometers), contracts into a narrow valley, the Wadi el Werd. On this basis, most scholars suggest the site of Baal-perazim to be Sheikh Bedr, on the promontory Ras en-Nadir, overlooking the “spring of the waters of Nephtoah [modern Lifta]” (Josh. 15:8, 9) to the NW of Jerusalem.

Mount Perazim referred to by Isaiah is considered to be the same location. Its use in his prophecy recalls Jehovah’s victory through David at Baal-perazim, cited as an example of the strange deed due to be effected, in which, Jehovah declares, he will break in upon his enemies like an overflowing flash flood.—Isa. 28:21.